Budget i5 gaming rig

[beardedlinuxgeek]

Date to buy parts:
As soon I get some feedback

Budget:
Less then $800

Main use:
Gaming

Parts I already have:
Mouse, keyboard, monitor, dvd/cd drive, harddrive, graphics card

For the mobo, ram, CPU, I was thinking about this combo
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.259927

Considering xoxide is going out of business, I figured I'd get my Case and PSU from them

case - http://www.xoxide.com/aspire-x-navigator-black.html
psu - http://www.xoxide.com/ocz-gamexstream-700w-psu.html

I'm running two 22" monitors at 1680x1050, but I plan on running four of them in the near future so I need a mobo with 2 x16 slots. I already have an 8600 and 7800 (crap, I know. But they work). I plan on getting a much better GPU in the near future as well. Any recommendations?

The drives I'm putting in are just a 1TB sata and a 350 sata, nothing special. No RAID or anything. Is raid worth it? Harddrives are pretty cheap now. What about loading up the OS and programs on a SSD drive or 10,000 rpms drive and store everything else on the TB? Anyways, these are all upgrades I can do after I already build thing. So no need to worry about it now.

I also plan on investing in water cooling so I can get my i5 up to like 4ghz, but I've never done it before, I need to do some research first.

Thanks

EDIT:
OS will be Windows 7 x64 because I get a free copy through MSDN

 

[wathman]

Can't speak from experience, but some overclocking info over at anandtech.com said that they could easily get over 4Ghz on a core i5 with just air cooling. That newegg combo is alright, though I think their combos with the Gigabyte boards are a bit better. I just like Gigabyte's boards and BIOS better than MSI.

 

[dndhatcher]

I'm running two 22" monitors at 1680x1050, but I plan on running four of them in the near future so I need a mobo with 2 x16 slots. I already have an 8600 and 7800 (crap, I know. But they work). I plan on getting a much better GPU in the near future as well. Any recommendations?

You need to read about the ATI 5870s being shipped at the end of this month. Up to 6 monitors on one GPU. $300-500 dollar range is not bad if it does the work of two GPUs and will be DX11 compatible for the future.
http://www.pcper.com/comments.php?nid=7744

There is no reason to have a smaller HDD and a larger one now. The new 1TB HDD are as fast as their smaller counterparts. The Samsung F3 is the cheapest top performer, Winchester Caviar Black would be the other choice.

RAID is for large databases, not gaming performance.

SSDs could be a good upgrade at some point. Read the reviews as many actually perform very poorly, especially after some use and when over half full.

 

[laluma22]

jep dndhatcher is right wait for the dx11 graphic cards and buy then and for i5 i would take a intel desktop board or gigabyte

1 intel knows what their processor needs
2.gigabyte build like intel wants them to do^^

so one of them
i suggest you
intel desktop board DP55KG exreme edition it is quite good^^

or a gigabyte .

greets laluma22

 

[wathman]

The release of the 5000 series ATI cards has convinced me to hold off my own video card upgrade, and it probably would be a good idea for you as well.

As for storage, in general, I would agree that a single drive with the largest capacity you can budget in is best. There are situations where you can improve performance with RAID arrays, but as Dndhatcher was getting at, they aren't for everyone.

The higher RAID levels as in 5 and above are intended for database storage, although many on-board RAID controllers do support at least 5. The problem is that the on-board RAID controllers are crappy compared to the ones found on server boards and expansion cards, so there isn't much point in using them. RAID 1 is useful for some desktop users since it is 100% redundant, and prevents data loss due to a single drive failure. There is 0 performance gain in this configuration though. RAID 0, or striping two matched hard drives can improve I/O performance, even with on-board RAID controllers. The performance gain is not huge however, and will give you much better writing speed than read speed over a single drive.

As for SSDs, definitely the future of storage, and you do have to be careful when picking a drive. For the reasons Dndhatcher mentioned, the only SSDs I recommend now are intel G2, or OCZ Vertex.

 

[beardedlinuxgeek]

Wow, thanks for all your help guys. I'll definitely wait for the ATI cards.

So here is my new plan

PSU - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371015
Case - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811103010

What CPU/RAM/Mobo combo should I get?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.259125
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.259927

The gigabyte board looks a little better, but the MSI board has much better reviews.

Am I going to need extra cooling to OC this bad boy?

 

[wathman]

Do you still plan on dual card setup? The 5870 Radeon will be plenty fast as a single card for most people at average resolutions. If you are looking to crossfire it at some point in the future, you'll need more than a 650 Watt PSU. As for the number of reviews, keep in mind all 1156 motherboards have been out in the public for about a week now. Not really a long time to say if a board is good or not in my opinion. Judging by the model numbers, the MSI board is a higher tier than the comparably priced gigabyte. You get more features for the same price, but in my experience, gigabyte boards tend to be manufactured better.

Also, if you plan on overclocking over 4Ghz, you really should get an aftermarket cooler.

 

[beardedlinuxgeek]

Alright, I'll get the gigabyte combo.

For a video card, I still don't know what to do. I play games and I want to run 4 monitors. What do you think I should do?

How much is the 5870 supposed to cost?

 

[wathman]

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/six_monitors_one_video_card_handson_amds_eyefinity

here's news from a tech demo AMD did last week... A single card (most likely 5870) driving 6 monitors simultaneously, to play games none the less. I doubt you would be hurting for Gfx performance for some time yet. As for pricing, still nothing official, but it sounds like they are targeting somewhere between $350-$400.

 

[wathman]

zipzoom makes a valid point from the engineering perspective, though I think it's going to be a while before games get complex enough to start thinking about multi card solutions with the next gen cards. There of course will people who make the dual and triple crossfire setups just because they can.. though really I don't think I'd be missing out if my games play at "only" 100 fps while they're getting 125 fps.

 

[beardedlinuxgeek]

I don't think I'll be running dual GPUs if I get the 5850. I'll just run my nvidia 8600 and 7800 for now and then pick up a 5000 series card in a few weeks.

I'm about to place my order, right now

PSU - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371015
Case - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811103010
CPU/RAM/Mobo - http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.259125

Last chance to make any changes, lol

What heatsink should I get?
http://www.frozencpu.com/cat/l3/g48/c369/s1037/list/p1/CPU_Heatsinks-CPU_Heatsinks_-_Socket-Socket_LGA_1156-Page1.html

 

[dndhatcher]

CPU Coolers:

Coolermaster Hyper 212 plus 120mm ($30)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103065

Coolermaster Hyper TX3 (92mm) ($20)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103064

About that case:

The thing that worries me most about that case is the side fan looks like its going to be over the CPU so there may not be enough room for a top quality 120mm cooler. I listed the cheapest good heatsink and its 92mm counterpart. Both say they work on i5s. You could install with the stock cooler, not overclock yet and measure so you know what size/shape will fit.

The second thing is the MFGs website says there is a top fan but eggheads specs didnt include one. The top grill will be covered by the PSU so I worry there isnt any. You want to have either a top or back fan so you may have to buy one that pumps alot of CFM out the back.

The third is I havent seen a review with the noise ratings on those two large case fans.

On the plus side, if need arises you can backpack mount it and capture ghosts. :lol:

 

[laluma22]

ok so if you have any questions just post them
^^

greets laluma22